Helping Teens Thrive: Why Educators and Youth-Serving Professionals Need Emotions Education 101™

One of my pet peeves is that I didn't receive a proper education in emotions until I was almost 40 years old. Until I saw the Change Triangle, I judged myself for what I felt and had no tools to help myself move through emotions like anger, anxiety, depression, and shame.

Every educator, counselor, psychologist, social worker, or coach working with young people knows this truth: beneath every behavior is an emotion, and beneath every emotion is a human being longing to feel safe, seen, and understood. When we explicitly teach students about emotions—what they are, how they arise in the body, and how to work with them rather than fear them—we give them tools to manage stress, reduce acting-out behaviors, and build healthier relationships.

Emotions education transforms what might otherwise be overwhelming reactions into opportunities for self-awareness, resilience, and growth.Yet, like me, most adolescents move through their school years with little to no formal emotions education. They’re asked to perform, achieve, relate, and regulate—without ever learning how their emotional brain actually works.

When we understand that core emotions are normal - not flaws to avoid - we feel better.

This is why we created a curriculum: Emotions Education 101™ for Teens and Preteens. This curriculum in the form of a 2-hour interactive workshop provides basic and practical knowledge of emotions that will kickoff a lifetime of emotional growth and health. The curriculum package comes with a dedicated companion workshop for parents and other caregivers so the whole family gets the same information.

Grounded in neuroscience and attachment theory, and guided by the AEDP-informed Change Triangle®, this curriculum offers young people—and the adults who support them—a trauma-sensitive, practical, body-based roadmap for understanding and working with emotions with greater skill, confidence, and compassion.

Why This Curriculum Matters for Schools and Teen Programs

Adolescents today are grappling with unprecedented levels of anxiety, social overwhelm, depression, and emotional dysregulation. Educators and youth professionals are witnessing it daily: shutdowns, outbursts, perfectionism, avoidance, somatic complaints, interpersonal conflicts, and chronic stress that impacts learning and development.

A slide from the EE 101 Teen Curriculum

What these young people need is not more pressure, reprimanding, or pathologizing—they need skills, language, and frameworks for understanding their emotional experience. Emotions Education 101™ meets that need with an accessible, inclusive curriculum that complements SEL programs, mental-health initiatives, prevention efforts, and therapeutic work.

What Professionals Will Find Inside

The curriculum consists of four 2-hour workshops—separate versions for Teens and Preteens, plus a carefully designed 2-hour Caregiver workshop. Facilitators receive:

• Clear step-by-step teaching scripts

• Professionally designed slide decks

• Reflective worksheets and handouts

• A grounding introduction to the Change Triangle®, the emotional-processing map at the core of all my work

• A short video from me and co-developer Heather Sanford, LCSW, orienting you to tone, pacing, and best practices

The workshops balance cognitive learning (“the science of what’s happening inside”) with experiential, body-based practices that help participants feel the difference between anxiety, core emotions, inhibitory emotions, and defenses. This dual-track approach helps students integrate emotional literacy on multiple levels—not just intellectually, but somatically and relationally.

The Change Triangle®: A Professional Tool That Changes Lives

The Change Triangle shows how emotions work in the mind and body.

Emotion-based work becomes infinitely clearer when youth and adults share a common map. The Change Triangle® teaches students how to identify where they are emotionally—caught in anxiety, collapsing into shame, escalating into anger, or defended through numbing, avoidance, or distraction.

Once teens and adults learn this map:

• Conflicts de-escalate more quickly

• Self-awareness increases

• Shame decreases

• Classroom engagement improves

• Counseling sessions go deeper, faster

• Parent-child communication becomes more open and regulated

Why the Caregiver Workshop Is Essential

Professionals can only do so much if caregivers are confused, overwhelmed, or dysregulated themselves. That’s why this curriculum includes a parallel 2-hour caregiver session: to build a shared emotional language at home and reinforce the skills students are learning.

When teens and caregivers understand the Change Triangle® together, an emotional bridge forms—one that supports healing, connection, and trust.

An Invitation to Bring Emotional Health to Your Community

If you are on the front lines of youth development, you see the emotional storms adolescents face—and the resilience they’re capable of when given the right tools. Emotions Education 101™ is designed to support your work, deepen your impact, and nurture healthier, more connected school and youth environments.

If your classroom, counseling office, clinic, or program is ready to integrate a science-supported, experiential, compassionate emotional-health curriculum, I would be honored for you to explore Emotions Education 101™ as a next step.

Together, we can help young people develop the emotional courage, clarity, and connectedness they need—not just to cope, but to thrive.

Join us for the January 26, 2026 Train the Trainer Workshop (Teen Curriculum Package included in tuition)

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Resources:

• For people struggling with anxiety and depression: It’s Not Always Depression: Working the Change Triangle to Listen to the Body, Discover Core Emotions, and Connect With Your Authentic Self (Random House & Penguin UK, 2018)

• For family health: Parents Have Feelings, Too: A Guide to Navigating Your Emotions So You And Your Family Can Thrive (Alcove Press/PRH, 2025)